psa: hey everyone! first i want to thank you for continuing to read and support this work. it means a lot, especially for something that has been in the works for the last four years. i do read each and every review though, and i want to address some of the concerns with my slow and inconsistent updating speed, which i realize is not fair for readers that are waiting for development on this story while i'm working on other works. and so i lose and regain readers, which is totally expected.

to be clear, as i've affirmed multiple times before, i'm not abandoning the story, but i do find this one to be the most challenging. it is literally the longest thing i have ever written, and as i've stated before, it is nowhere near going to be done soon (although honestly i should hurry the fuck up and finish). the majority of the things i wrote are 500 to 1000 word one-shots which is much less effort than i have to put in for a multichapter fic. that said, i hope you understand and continue to have patience with me, and do not be shy about kicking my ass about the writing. (after all, it was a review that told me to wake up and update this shit.)

i have no excuses for not updating, and i do want to apologize for seeming to just throw this story under the boat. it is not discontinued, but hiatus with sporadic updates might seem to describe the situation best. i am in medical school, but i have a writing schedule set up, and we'll see how things work out as i wax and wane with available time.

but anyway, i think this is the last i'll say about the updating in a long while. what's more important is that the story, after all!

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notes: my writing style has changed plenty since i've last updated. this past half year has been a lot less busy than in the past so i've had plenty of time to adapt my style and try to reconcile it with the past. but anyway, please and always enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-Six
like father, like son

Truth be told, Sakura didn't really have too much of an idea who Minato Namikaze was when Naruto first mentioned him. And sure, maybe Naruto knew much more about the Leaf Country's history than she ever would, but even then she felt a little embarrassed to not know very much about the fourth president.

"...is there...something..." Sakura squeaked, starting and stopping multiple times. "...is there something that I should know about President Namikaze that could be relevant to this case?"

Naruto whirled around in his chair to face her, glaring intensely at her.

Sakura threw her hands up in front of her. "I mean, I just...I just wanted to check!" she defended, stuttering. "I just...all I know is that he was assassinated! I'm not a history buff or something, you know? Naruto, you know this! I was a hardcore pre-med all throughout my undergraduate years...I just took Leaf Country history to get rid of the requirement!"

Naruto sighed before rattling on. "Sakura, Minato Namikaze was only one of the most brilliant presidents ever! He was super smart and was one of the greatest military personnel during his service time, and I mean, he was just awesome. He implemented a lot of really good and open policies that made the military a lot better to work for. I can't even begin to tell you. And not to mention his wife, First Lady Kushina Namikaze, who was super involved with restructuring the educational system." He huffed loudly with disapproval at Sakura.

She returned a guilty smile. "I suppose I should start paying more attention to history."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "It's okay. Not many people remember what President Namikaze did, except that he and his wife were shot the year after his term began, which is why President Sarutobi is back..." The blond shrugged his shoulders, turning back to the computer. "But I guess it's natural for someone of my background to know a ton about him since he did a lot for the military. I always found President Namikaze kinda interesting anyway."

Naruto continued to scroll through the President's files.

"Not to mention the ANBU has a ton of info on this guy..." he mused.

"Well, we still have an ongoing low-key investigation to find out more about the assassination, even though the case has been closed and the perpetrators dealt with," Sai explained. "It's only natural."

"I wonder what Sasuke would want with the president's belongings," Naruto said, thinking out loud. "We don't even know what exactly it was that he took."

Naruto further flipped through the folders and folders of files on the former president. The words and numbers and names began to mix up in Sakura's head. There was just so many information—she couldn't help but remember how much more there was on Sasuke's file when she had seen it herself.

Sakura blinked the thoughts out of her mind. She still hadn't sorted everything out about how she felt about Sasuke just yet but this exact moment wasn't the right time to be figuring it out either.

"There!" she said, pointing at the upper right corner of the screen. "There's a file about his personal will. Maybe that would be able to tell us a little bit about the things that he left behind?"

Naruto didn't waste another moment, hovering the mouse over and clicking to access the president's will. He was immediately met with a window denying access records.

"Well, there goes that attempt," Naruto said, sitting back into his seat. "Now what?"

The two of them looked over at Sai, who seemed to be thinking hard, hand on his chin. He looked displeased at the window.

"It's always just access denial after access denial," he murmured, before sighing and asking Naruto, "You are using Anko's access codes, right?"

The blond nodded. "So you think Anko just doesn't have the ability to look through these files? Must be pretty high-profile information then, huh?"

Sai narrowed his eyes at the computer screen before agreeing. "Yeah, I suppose."

"Would this be something that you would be able to look at using your access?" Sakura suggested.

"Absolutely not. Anko is plenty of levels higher than I am," he assured.

"I wonder what's so super-secret about this info," Naruto remarked. "I guess it's pretty important stuff since it's the president's will."

"We could place a request for the information and wait for approval," Sai said.

"And how long would that take?"

To this question, Sai shrugged. "But that's why I think there might be a quicker way of getting around this, and I think I know something that we can do."

"Well honestly any idea is better than the nothing that we have here," Naruto deadpanned. "So what do you got?"

Sai hesitated and pursed his lips, looking at Sakura as he spoke. "I know that you're not going to like the sound of this, but...I think we should take a step back and try to get whatever information Tenzou has."

"What?" Sakura said. She couldn't hide her disbelief at the suggestion. Sai broke eye contact with her.

"He's on a slightly higher rank than Anko," Sai explained, a bit more quietly. "And I think if anything, we'll get some extra information from him. It can't hurt, and while we're at it, I guess we can also figure out if Tenzou is up to something behind our backs. I still feel like he knows something and isn't telling us."

"I thought we were just over this, Sai," she told him, finally, after a moment.

Sai didn't seem to want to argue with her further. Sakura looked over in Naruto's direction for support of her side, but instead saw Naruto casually scrolling through the rest of Namikaze's file, blatantly ignoring the conversation.

"Naruto," she called, and she saw the blond stiffen.

"I don't know," Naruto finally answered.

Sakura soured. "What do you mean?" she snapped, completely irritated by the two of them now. "I thought all three of us agreed that we were going to trust Tenzou at least up until this case was closed. And we literally just did that. I thought that—"

"I know," Naruto interrupted her. "I get it but I also get how Sai feels so I don't know." He spun around again to face her. "I didn't trust Sai for the longest time...and if I were brutally honest, I still kinda don't—"

"Not this again, Naruto—" she said, her voice raising.

"Just hear me out on this, Sakura."

Sakura closed her mouth and crossed her arms. She absolutely could not believe that after all this time, they were still bringing up the issue of trust. She got it, she really did, but over and over again, the whole I-don't-trust-you thing kept the three of them from getting anywhere and making any progress, and sure, yeah, maybe she was just naive and stupid but damn it-at a time like this, they needed to work together.

She saw Sai trying to read her facial expressions.

She didn't let him, turning her face off the side.

"Fine, I get it," she said. "I'm just naive and stupid, and I give people too many second chances. I mean, that's why Sasuke was able to just push me aside when—"

"No, no!" Naruto blurted, standing up from his chair. "Sakura—no, I'm not trying to say that you're wrong or anything. What Sai's saying kinda makes sense, even outside of all his distrust for the guy. It's just that right now there's no other lead on this case and there's not much else we can do."

"Then why can't we just fucking get over it and work together on this and stop trying to pin the blame on each other!" Sakura said, fisting her hands at her sides. "We all know that Sasuke is the one that is the enemy. Sasuke is the bad one and we can't trust Sasuke and I will never trust Sasuke again!"

"This is exactly why I'm just suggesting that we do this so that we can get closer to capturing him," Sai said. When seeing that she wasn't listening at all to him, Sai reached out for her arm again, but she pulled her wrist away from him to keep him from touching her. "Saku-"

"And you're part of the whole problem!" she yelled at him, feeling her eyes burning hot at the back, a ball choking up in her throat. "I know that your brother was important to you and I know this is really hard, but...I just..." She waved her hand in front of her, unable to figure out what to say, before covering her mouth. "Sorry."

Sai waited a moment before quietly saying, "It's okay. I shouldn't have suggested it in the first place."

Sakura blinked and was surprised to find a small tear fall out of her eye. She hurriedly wiped it away, doing the same with the other eye. "No," she said, against her shaking voice. "I get it. I get that Tenzou might know more about all of this. I just don't want to spy on him or go behind his back. Why can't you just ask him if you can use his access codes?"

Sai looked off to the side. "Sorry," he said. "I guess I just didn't want Tenzou to know what we were up to. Just in case...you know?"

"But that's what I'm saying," Sakura replied. "I thought we were going to work with him for this case and just give him the benefit of the doubt. Just this once."

Naruto broke the silence afterward, very aware that Sai wasn't about to be the first one to verbally agree to it all.

"Alright, let's do this then," he said, getting up and stretching. "He's crashing with Kakashi so we should probably head over there."

a midnight stop at Hatake's

Kakashi wasn't exactly surprised to see the three of him at his door so close to midnight, but he also didn't look particularly pleased about it either.

"And what exactly are you doing here?" Kakashi asked them, his one un-hidden eyebrow raised.

"We just wanted to consult with Tenzou on something in our case," Sai answered, not missing a beat.

Kakashi sighed, looking behind him. "Well, he's not here right now."

"Do you know where he is?" Sai blurted, without thinking.

The older man simply stared at him.

"You know, just because I'm not on your team doesn't mean that I'm not going to offer you any help at all."

Sai blinked.

Kakashi studied the ANBU's face for a moment before glancing at Sakura and Naruto, figuring it out within a matter of seconds.

"If this was just a reason to get into Tenzou's things..." Kakashi started.

"I'm sorry," Sai blurted, bowing down. "You're completely right if you were suspecting that I was still distrustful of Tenzou."

Sakura's eyes widened on seeing the apologetic gesture. This certainly was not the first time that she had seen Sai explicitly sorry about his actions before, but just given what had happened just before they left Anko's apartment to come here, she had certainly not expected him to be clear about his wrongdoings-and especially not to a superior.

Kakashi let Sai's bow hang for a moment before tapping his shoulder and encouraging him to stand back up straight. "This doesn't have anything to do with me. This is something between you and Tenzou." He stepped back and held the door wider for all of them, inviting all three of them in.

Sakura stepped into his place and looked around, noting that Kakashi's place was almost as clean as she'd expect it to be. Not quite as orderly as Sai but that was probably because-

She immediately looked away when she noticed a very familiar shirt-one that she often saw on Ayame, in fact-crumpled on the ground near the couch off in the corner. She tried very hard not to think of what could have possibly been going on for the shirt to be left there. Sakura was still warming up to the idea of Ayame dating her former professor-she was in no position to remember all the other things that came along with relationships.

"So what exactly do you need?" Kakashi said, guiding them over to the square kitchen table and pulling out a tablet. "Something above Anko's pay grade?"

"Just some information on the Fourth," Naruto replied.

Kakashi didn't hesitate to pass Naruto his tablet once he had adequately set up the database, and Naruto got right to work on sifting back through the files to retrieve a text copy of the will. Kakashi sat back into his chair and took a deep breath, rubbing the back of his head thoughtfully.

"I wouldn't expect information like that of the Fourth's to be denied to Anko," he simply said.

Sai shifted his eyes to the stove. "I wouldn't know anything about the politics in the ANBU."

Kakashi's left eye calmly observed Sai before he sighed deeply again. "Well, I'm not the one directly supervising her. What Anko can and can't do is not my business."

The two ANBU agents didn't exchange a word after that, and after a minute of watching Naruto play around on Kakashi's tablet and after another minute of attempting to read either Kakashi's or Sai's face and not getting anything, Sakura decided to talk on less serious subjects.

"S-So how's Ayame?" she asked.

She most definitely didn't really want to hear anything about the relationship from Kakashi, but she supposed that ever since seeing Ayame's shirt so obviously lying on the floor in the living room, that was the only topic that she could really think of.

The corner of Kakashi's eye crinkled upwards. "We're perfectly fine."

Sakura smiled stiffly. "That's fantastic to hear."

And it really was, now that she thought about it.

While the thought of Ayame being in a relationship with her former professor was still a strange thought, she was more than happy to remember how relieved she was to have saved Ayame from the Akatsuki. And if it wasn't for Kakashi...who knew what would have happened to Ayame.

So she had to at least give him credit for that.

She felt her smile soften.

Kakashi didn't seem to notice, turning back to Sai. "You know, I don't think you're entirely wrong to suspect Tenzou of suspicious behavior at all."

This statement surprised the three others.

"What?" Sai asked, eyes furrowed, as if he didn't hear right.

Sakura caught Sai glancing over at her, but she pretended that she didn't notice him. "What do you mean?"

Kakashi took another deep breath in and out, slouching into his seat.

"I mean that I noticed Tenzou has notes on Anko," he explained, and before any of them could ask further, he continued, "I was just helping him carry his things in when he first moved in and I just happened to see. It wasn't more than a couple of handwritten bullet points but it was more than the average 'she likes dango and sweet things' kinda information."

Sakura's eyes widened. Would this mean that-

"Tenzou is spying on Anko?" Sai immediately concluded.

Sakura could feel the air around Sai change.

Kakashi tilted his head to the left and right. "I don't know if that's exactly what's going on, but I can't deny that I've just been more careful with my things around the house since he's moved in."

"I knew it," Sai muttered.

Sakura noticed Sai's clenched fist at his side. She looked up to his face, but in that second, Sai caught her staring at him and she looked away as quickly as she could, instead bumping into Naruto's eyes. She avoided his eyes as well.

"So...so now what?" Sakura asked, hesitantly.

"Nothing," Kakashi said. "We just wait and watch and stay wary."

"I see."

Kakashi turned to Sai. "I was curious if you suspected something, too," he continued. "Which is why I was asking earlier at the door."

"No. I don't have anything," Sai replied softly, staring down at the table.

Something in Sakura's heart made her feel very heavy and guilt on the inside. Something probably related to the fact that she had been the one that was so adamant on making Sai trust Tenzou and that she was devaluing Sai's gut feelings.

"Well..." Kakashi offered. "I suppose that since you three are already here, you could help me clean a bit...and I can't help it if you happen to see Tenzou's things..."

Sakura looked up at Sai, but the ANBU agent was expressionless. Naruto was avoiding the conversation, focusing back on obtaining the Fourth's personal will.

Kakashi's suggestion hung in the air for a while before Sakura spoke.

"M-Maybe we shouldn't just go through his things—"

"Why not?" Sai asked her, calm but stern. "Before, I was just suspecting him for no reason but now we actually have Kakashi saying that-"

"I got it," Naruto suddenly announced, breaking the tension.

But the way he said it worried them. His lips were moving but no words were coming out.

"Naruto?"

"Minato Namikaze..." he replied. "Minato Namikaze had a son."

Naruto looked up at them—face pale, eyes wide.

"He's Naruto Uzumaki," he said. "He's me."

notes: yes, Kushina takes Minato's last name in this story, which is an important detail to Naruto's backstory, but of course, we'll find out more about that later!

again, as always, thank you for reading this and comments are more than appreciated.

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